Grayville School District told to tighten up on finances

The Grayville School District is not facing a financial crisis yet, but the situation could deteriorate seriously over the next few years.

By PATRICK SEILOf The Navigator

The Grayville School District is not facing a financial crisis yet, but the situation could deteriorate seriously over the next few years.

The district has roughly enough reserves to sustain its current level of deficit spending for about eight years, the Grayville School Board was told Wednesday night by its auditor.

The district ran a deficit of $185,444 last fiscal year based on revenues of $3,227,213 and expenditures of $3,412,657, reported Keith Botsch, of the Carmi accounting firm Botsch & Associates.

"In today's climate, that's not a bad ending result," said Botsch.

However, "We can't continue that for too many years, because you have a $1.4 million in fund balance, and roughly that's eight years of $200,000 deficit spending...we'll be out of cash," Botsch warned.

"You have to continue tightening the belt. I know you've done a lot to tighten the belt...there's still always work to be done."

"If the state would pay us what they owe us, we'd be even," observed board member John Gray.

But that's not likely in the short term, Botsch said. "Funding's getting tighter," he noted.

And it's likely to get tighter. School districts currently are paid at 89 percent of what they should be receiving under the state aid formula, but last week the State Board of Education warned that figure will probably go to 85 percent next year.

The Grayville School Board last month approved a budget projecting $87,764 in red ink.

While upstate districts enjoy ample tax bases and are not reliant on state assistance, that is not the case in the southern end of the state, Botsch pointed out.

"Districts south of Springfield, they could care less about us. They don't see the concern," he said.

The district ended the fiscal year with a $994,174 balance in education fund, a $64,352 balance in operations and maintenance, $71,553 in transportation, $69,156 in working cash and $125,319 in tort immunity.

The district's total fund balance is "very strong for a district of your size, stronger than a lot of the districts we tend to work with," Botsch said.

"You are in decent financial shape but you had a tough year, because your expenditures exceeded your revenues," he added.

Most of the red ink was to be found in the education fund, which finished with a deficit of $144,199.

Schools

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